Waves and Optics_dsc2839_Patrick Montero

Andrea Lommen leads a demonstration showing students the various “modes” of oscillation of (1) beads on a string and (2) a string. One end of the string is “wiggled” at a particular frequency, and the string will exhibit different shapes depending upon the frequency of the wiggling. Only particular shapes occur. The system is analogous to many quantum mechanical systems in which only certain energies are allowed, i.e. a quantized system. Photo by Patrick Montero